1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to data processing in databases and, more particularly, to providing natural language support for users running queries against a multilingual database.
2. Description of the Related Art
Databases are computerized information storage and retrieval systems. A relational database management system is a computer database management system (DBMS) that uses relational techniques for storing and retrieving data. The most prevalent type of database is the relational database, a tabular database in which data is defined so that it can be reorganized and accessed in a number of different ways. A distributed database is one that can be dispersed or replicated among different points in a network. An object-oriented programming database is one that is congruent with the data defined in object classes and subclasses.
Regardless of the particular architecture, a DBMS can be structured to support a variety of different types of operations for a requesting entity (e.g., an application, the operating system or an end user). Such operations can be configured to retrieve, add, modify and delete information being stored and managed by the DBMS. Standard database access methods support these operations using high-level database query languages, such as the Structured Query Language (SQL).
One type of functionality that a DBMS must support for end users is natural language support. By way of example, one framework provides natural language support for users running queries in an abstract database environment. The abstract database environment provides a requesting entity (i.e., an end-user or front-end application) with a data abstraction model that defines an abstract representation of data stored in an underlying physical storage mechanism, such as a relational database. The data abstraction model facilitates the process of query composition by allowing a user to compose abstract queries without needing to understand the schema of the physical data. The framework provides a natural language resource component that defines translation information for a given data abstraction model using one or more natural language expressions. The natural language expression(s) can be used to translate expressions occurring in a default language in an abstract query (that is composed using the given data abstraction model) into another language defined by the natural language resource component. Furthermore, query results obtained in the default language can be translated into the other language using user-defined functions that contain suitable translation information.
The foregoing framework is satisfactory to provide natural language support for single-language databases (i.e., databases having physical data that is provided in a single default language). However, databases may contain physical data provided in one or more different languages that is originated from one or more different geographic locations. In this case (i.e., when dealing with a multi-language or multilingual database), the foregoing framework is unsatisfactory.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved and more flexible technique for providing natural language support for users running queries against a multilingual database.